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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerica's Red State Death Trip Why does falling life expectancy track political orientation?
Americas Red State Death Trip
Why does falling life expectancy track political orientation?
By Paul Krugman, Opinion Columnist at the NY Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/opinion/life-expectancy-united-states.html#click=https://t.co/J9s9OiOgIj
"SNIP......
E pluribus unum out of many, one is one of Americas traditional mottos. And you might think it would be reflected in reality. We arent, after all, just united politically. We share a common language; the unrestricted movement of goods, services and people is guaranteed by the Constitution. Shouldnt this lead to convergence in the way we live and think?
In fact, however, the past few decades have been marked by growing divergence among regions along several dimensions, all closely correlated. In particular, the political divide is also, increasingly, an economic divide. As The Timess Tom Edsall put it in a recent article, red and blue voters live in different economies.
What Edsall didnt point out is that red and blue voters dont just live differently, they also die differently.
About the living part: Democratic-leaning areas used to look similar to Republican-leaning areas in terms of productivity, income and education. But they have been rapidly diverging, with blue areas getting more productive, richer and better educated. In the close presidential election of 2000, counties that supported Al Gore over George W. Bush accounted for only a little over half the nations economic output. In the close election of 2016, counties that supported Hillary Clinton accounted for 64 percent of output, almost twice the share of Trump country.
......SNIP"
mopinko
(69,803 posts)honestly, i swear to you, a venn diagram of the opioid crisis and trump voters, it would be scary. there is a thing there.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,267 posts)getagrip_already
(14,226 posts)Drinking to excess nightly, if not daily. Check.
Eating fast food, greasy/fatty/sugary foods to the exclusion of anything else. Check.
Not exercising. Check.
Smoking. Check.
Avoiding vaccines and really anything to do with doctors or medicine. Check.
Cleaning guns while drunk. Check. Click, BANG.
Plus many, many, other unhealthy and unproductive pursuits.
Nope, no reasons I can think of.........
applegrove
(118,008 posts)the dating pool limited.
Maru Kitteh
(28,303 posts)Same goes for:
seatbelts
dental hygiene
reading the instructions
reading
regular medical care
helmets
water
Just a few things that come to mind. There are more, to be sure.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,021 posts)Initech
(99,909 posts)Asking for a friend...
Aristus
(66,075 posts)The idea that because one is born white, one should have all of the features of the American dream automatically bestowed upon oneself. No need for effort, vision, imagination, education, cooperation, etc.
So red state white people forego education, planning for the future, striving for excellence, and so on.
And of course, no one is going to tell these people what they can and can't do. So they will indulge every impulse that strikes them: smoking, drinking, meth, driving too fast, gambling too much, challenging bosses or co-workers, not following up on opportunities, etc. And of course, blaming anyone but themselves if their lives don't turn out they way they dreamed, especially if their hatred is easily directed to minorities. Remember how the red-staters were convinced that Barack Obama was a fraud, because they preferred to believe he was handed everything he had, rather than admit he had worked hard for all of it? To do so would be to admit that their failures were due to their own inaction, their own inertia, their own ignorance.
Their resolute refusal to educate themselves is leading not only decreased quality of life, but decreased life expectancy.
Ponietz
(2,903 posts)That sums it up.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,021 posts)It's a matter of survival.
ThoughtCriminal
(14,009 posts)The F.U. attitude towards healthy eating and the environment, underfunded education, low wages with income inequality. The lack of affordable health care leads to abuse of pain-killers as a substitute for medical treatment.
All these things but also the attachment to a non-stop fear, outrage, and hate propaganda blitz. Bound to take a few years off life expectancy when you are convinced that a gang of ANTIFA ninjas are lurking around every corner waiting for the next MAGA-hat.
hatrack
(59,439 posts)Abandoning rational thought and skepticism - that's just the opener.
You'll then be parboiled in Original See-Yun so that you feel like shit just for existing, and don't even go there with sex, or if you're gay.
But don't worry! Getting WWIII up on the starting blocks is when the magic really begins !!
When Pro Wrestling Jesus turns on the Holy Hoover and sucks the Saved (that's YOU, Bubba!) up to the clouds, then everybody who ever laughed at you, every girl who ever turned you down, every smartass who left town and got ahead, every teacher who didn't give you the grade you "deserved" - you'll be in Heaven and you'll get to watch them suffer - and won't that be wonderful?!?!?
Talk about a death cult . . .
BigmanPigman
(51,430 posts)Now people stay put and complain instead.
Lucky Luciano
(11,242 posts)caraher
(6,276 posts)Red states lack programs to mitigate the effects of growing economic inequality. Blue states try more, however imperfectly.
The Spirit Level is getting old but there are too many associations that are too well documented to ignore. Pretty much every quantifiable measure of well-being in societies that are not desperately poor correlates with higher equality.
applegrove
(118,008 posts)They vote intuitively. So they vote republican and the inequality gets even bigger.
Hekate
(90,189 posts)His is a voice of sanity.
applegrove
(118,008 posts)roamer65
(36,739 posts)Pile all of the government debt onto them and kick them out of the Union.